Category: Apartment Gardening

On Sunday mornings before we go out for our walk, Dwight tends to the plants. Currently, they’re dispersed throughout our home, with the succulents enjoying the balcony. Before any long trip, all the plant racks are wheeled to one location so they can be connected to drip irrigation.

Tore out a tangle of irrigation tubes installed by a former landscaping contractor in two of our building’s planters because half the drippers weren’t dripping. I replaced them with a system based on pressure-compensated manifolds (bottom right) that deliver a reliable 2.0 gallons per hour to every single emitter, regardless of water pressure. Thirty years ago, a fresh-grad landscaper introduced us to this technology, which back then was mainly used in farming.

Too busy enjoying a walk and chat with friends to remember to capture a photo du jour. Instead, here’s a shot of our garden on wheels on this cold evening.

Set up irrigation drippers in planters in outdoor spaces around our building. You can just see some of the tubes in this photo, but they will soon disappear as the plants fill out. Our building’s garden club has saved us over $30,000 in recent years by taking on some tasks that would otherwise be performed by contractors.

A plant misting zone had become anemic, so today I tracked down a failing solenoid valve. Swapping in a spare was easy because the electrical and water connectors are push-in, requiring no tools. Our irrigation system uses many convenient push-in water connectors, and tubes have never popped out when properly locked. More time-consuming was re-jigging the software that controls the misting zones, another item on my to-do list.

Dwight’s in Fargo for Mother’s Day, so while he’s gone, it’s my job to hand-mist his orchids. We have misters on this rack, but it has currently been rolled away from the water supply and high-pressure pump.